Nerve Damage (Neuropathy)

What is Nerve Damage?

The nervous system plays a role in most bodily functions, from regulating your heartbeat to controlling your muscle movements to helping you process and feel sensations, including pain. Nerves carry information to and from the brain and to and from the spinal cord to the rest of the body. Nerve damage, which is also called neuropathy, is very common and can have a wide variety of symptoms.

Cause/Risk Factors of Nerve Damage

Nerve damage and the resulting pain can have many causes, depending on which nerves are involved. Causes include:

Autoimmune diseases

Cancer

Trauma

Diabetes

Exposure to toxins

Motor neuron diseases

Nutritional deficiencies

Infectious diseases

Underactice thyroid gland

Symptoms of Nerve Damage

Nerve damage can have a wide variety of symptoms, depending on the type of nerves affected and their location.

The motor nerves control muscle movement by sending information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles. Motor nerve damage symptoms include:

Muscle weakness or paralysis

Muscle atrophy

Twitching

Paralysis

The sensory nerves relay sensory information that includes temperature, pain and other sensations by sending information from the skin and muscles to the brain and spinal cord. Sensory nerve damage symptoms include:

Sharp, jabbing pain

Extreme sensitivity to touch

Numbness

Tingling or prickling

Burning

Lack of coordination

Diagnosis of Nerve Damage

Neuropathy can be very challenging to diagnose. Generally, a physical exam, neurological exam, patient history, and screening tests are the first steps.

Screening tests can detect or rule out diabetes, vitamin deficiencies, liver or kidney dysfunction, and other metabolic disorders. Other diagnostic tests for neuropathy include:

Electromyograms (EMG) can help differentiate between muscle and nerve disorders.

Nerve conduction velocity testing can measure the degree of damage in large nerve fibers.

Nerve biopsy, which can provide valuable information about the degree of damage in a nerve

Skin biopsy, which can reveal information about nerve fiber endings.

Treatment of Nerve Damage

At PMIR Medical Center, we understand that pain is a complex condition that affects the whole person—body, mind and spirit. We provide a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to treatment, customizing the most effective treatment plans for our patients and empowering them to become a collaborative partner in their recovery process.

Nerve damage can be progressive, so it is important to seek treatment as soon as symptoms appear. The first goal of treatment at PMIR is to address the underlying condition that’s causing nerve damage. For example, if you have neuropathy that is caused by diabetes, it’s essential to learn to control your blood sugar.

After the underlying issue has been addressed, we offer treatment options for nerve damage that include:

More Resources

PAIN CHECKER

Where does it hurt?

To help you better understand why you have pain and how we can help alleviate it, PMIR Medical Center is providing this interactive Pain Checker. Just click on the area that hurts. Then read about the conditions behind your specific pain, the problems it may be causing, and what you can do to relieve your problem.

NOTE: The PMIR Pain Checker is intended for educational purposes only. PMIR encourages patients to educate themselves on all pain symptoms and the treatments we provide. However, we recommend anyone who may be suffering from any pain to not self-diagnose, or to supplement seeking medical advice with information on our site. If you have a medical emergency, please dial 911.